verified email -
11 Jan 2015
The location is perfect in every way, however the management of the venue has inspired me to warn as many people as possible to run for the hills rather than booking an event here. At least until a change of ownership takes place. The manager, Terry, provided us with Saturday prices for a Friday wedding which we didn't realise until after we'd paid (upfront). When we brought it to his attention he refused to change it or upgrade our package to reflect the price we paid. He tried to get more money out of us constantly between the time we booked and paid until the very day prior to our wedding. He showed us a picture of a beautiful wrought iron-esque birdcage like structure he was having delivered for the end of the aisle when we first approached him about booking our wedding. It looked like a fairy tale, and was one of the reasons we booked. This never eventuated, and instead he had a structure that looked like a home made adaptation of a clothesline, draped with a sheet so the horrific nature of the structure wasn't quite as apparent. Luckily he also had a simple arch, which our decorator added flowers and ivy to, after I explained how let down we were from what we'd originally been promised. (I noted that these decorations were retained for a wedding held there the following day as well). The food was the quality you'd expect in economy class on an airplane. It was brought in from offsite and re-heated in the kitchens. It was our fault for assuming that with such excellent kitchens, the food would be cooked onsite. It really was an awful quality for the price paid. It also explains why the manager avoided us for a year when we continually called to try and schedule a tasting. Please learn from our mistake here and have it in writing that food will be prepared from scratch, onsite, and ensure you have a tasting before paying the deposit, let alone paying in full. We had a wedding reviewer attend our wedding, and he agreed that the cost wasn't worth what we got, and that the wine supplied was awful. The parts he stated that he thought were good value were all additions we'd paid for from other suppliers. All in all, I'd suggest people go elsewhere because Linton Gardens is not worth the money, or the hassle of dealing with a sneaky sales oriented businessman who is more interested in getting every cent out of you than in assisting you to celebrate your once in a lifetime occasion. It's memorable, but for mostly the wrong reasons, and we were SO happy not to have to deal with this guy ever again when it was all over. It was truly the worst part of our wedding, and unfortunately, it's the part you need to be the best. Even friends stated that the food was terrible. We had a chef at our wedding, and he apologised for not eating anything because of the terrible quality. We were also advised by a beautician doing my pre-wedding massage, to go to the venue directly the following day, as they had trouble getting their refundable deposit back after their wedding. We did this, and were provided with a cheque which cleared in the normal period.
Approximate cost:
$Over $10 000